Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/258

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��Popular Science Monthly

���A Soap That Blues the Clotnes While Lathering Them

AN Englishman' has patented a u new laundry soap which he claims will blue the clothes while lathering them for washing. It con- tains tallow, caustic soda, sodium thio-sulphate and a suitable dye pigment.

The question arises as to whether or not articles requiring more soaping than others will receive more than the desired amount of bluing, and whether the subsequent rinsings will remove the coloring obtained in the rubbing process.

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��The lamp is connected with batteries secured to the harness saddle or to a riding saddle

An Electric Headlight for the Up-to-Date Horse

OLD Dobbin Is becoming up-to-date, or seems to be making an effort to do so in order to keep up with the automobile. , He is now wearing an electric headlight, which lets an on-coming vehicle know that he is lumbering along. For this he is indebted to William M. Cloninger, of Paris, Arkansas, who has invented the headlight shown in the illustration. The lamp is con- nected with batteries secured to the saddle of the harness or to a riding saddle for horseback riding. It throws the light on the roadway ahead and thus helps to avoid accidents.

Horses are apt to be very much like people as to skittishness or steadiness of nerve in the dark, and it will be found much safer to drive a nervous horse over a well- lighted pathway than it would be to coax him along a dark road at night.

The lamp is provided with a reflector which has a double convex lens and is a part of a hollow post through which the conducting wire is lead. This post is riveted at its lower end to a curved metallic base which is secured to the upper part of the bridle. The lamp may be detached when desired and used as a hand lamp around the stable, the hollow post portion serving as a handle.

��Keeping Hungry Rats and Rabbits Out of Sewers

T has recently been discovered that such animals as rabbits and field rats are the cause of much trouble in sewers of the smaller towns. They search sewers for food. Prompted by this discovery a manu- facturer is now placing on the market a protector which will not only keep out any inquiring animal, but which will also allow sewerage water to discharge just as freely as ever. His device consists of a heavy perforated steel cover, the weight of which is sufficient to keep it closed against an animal when the sewerage discharge is small enough to pass through the perfora- tions in the cover. But if at any time the discharge becomes heavy, the cover will be forced upward on its hinges by the water and a greater discharge area will be obtained. In this case the force of the water itself will keep out the rats.

���The drain is kept in place by anchor rods on each side

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